There Were Roses
by Shaeya Sedjet
Summary: Vampires control the continental US, but the humans are fighting back. Factions of Vegetarian vampires are teaming up with the humans to help keep them alive. Can three mixed race couples turn the course of this needless and bloody war? Cannon pairings.
1. Prologue

**Author's Note:** This is my first Twilight fanfiction. I've been toying with the idea of writing something along this theme for a while now. I couldn't decide whether or not to make it AH or Hum/Vamp. I didn't get much feedback, so I made an executive decision. I'm off to a very rough start, so constructive criticism is definitely welcome.

"**There Were Roses"**

in the style of Cara Dillon

original lyrics by Tommy Sands

My song for you this evening  
It's not to make you sad  
Nor for adding to the sorrows  
Of this troubled northern land  
But lately I've been thinking  
And it just wont leave my mind  
I'll tell you of two friends one time  
Who were both good friends of mine

Isaac he was Protestant  
And Sean was Catholic born  
But it never made a difference  
For the friendship it was strong  
And sometimes in the evening  
When we heard the sound of drums  
We said it wont divide us  
We will always be as one

There were roses, roses  
There were roses  
And the tears of a people ran together

It was on a Sunday morning  
When the awful news came round  
Another killing had been done  
Just outside Newry Town  
We knew that Isaac danced up there  
We knew he liked the band  
But when we heard that he was dead  
We just could not understand

The fear it filled the countryside  
There was fear in every home  
When late at night a car came  
Prowling round the Ryan Road  
A Catholic would be killed tonight  
To even up the score  
Oh Christ, it's young MacDonald  
They have taken from the door

There were roses, roses  
There were roses  
And the tears of a people ran together

Isaac was my friend he cried  
He begged them with his tears  
But centuries of hatred  
Have ears that do not hear  
An eye for an eye  
It was all that filled their minds  
And another eye for another eye  
Till everyone is blind

Now I don't know where the moral is  
Or where this song should end  
But I wonder just how many wars  
Are fought between good friends  
And those who give the orders  
Are not the ones to die  
It's Scott and young MacDonald  
And the likes of you and I

There were roses, roses  
There were roses  
And the tears of a people ran together

**There Were Roses**

**Prologue**

It was a time when vampires controlled the continental United States. Vampires may have been in charge, but the humans weren't taking it lying down. They were fighting back. There was carnage in the streets as far as the eye could see.

There were factions of vampires, however, that refused to take part in the ritual slaughter of humans. They called themselves "Vegetarians," feeding only on the blood of animals. These factions existed in peace with the humans, trying to keep them alive. These vampires valued human life so highly, because most had become vampires against their will.

We were a rag-tag group of Vegetarians and humans struggling to survive the ruthless, brutal war. My name is Bella, and this is our story.


	2. War

**Author's Note: ** Does anyone know why my center alignment is not working? The document is formatted correctly when I open it in my word processor, but when I upload it, it looks crap. Grargh.

**There Were Roses**

**Chapter One**

**War**

I was born into a world of pain and death. As I was being born, people were dying trying to protect me. Don't get me wrong, there was nothing special about me. However, in this time of war in which human life meant so little, the birth of a child was something to fight for.

I grew up attending "school" in a poorly lit bomb shelter. I didn't learn to do the normal kid things like riding a bike or roller skating. There was no dodgeball at recess. Hell, we didn't even _have_ recess. We just covered the required material as quickly as possible in order to get home safely to our families.

I lived in a world run by vampires. They held no value whatsoever for human life. We were cattle. A food source. In some places, they had special breeding centers to keep a large enough population to feed from.

There were some vampires, however, that shunned the human food source. They called themselves Vegetarians, feeding only from the blood of animals. These covens banded together with humans to protect them, fighting against their carnivorous relatives.

My father worked closely with one such coven. They shuttled the children to and from school, fending off any Hunters that might be prowling our territory. They stood guard as human mothers birthed human babies. As a child, I thought of them as angels—guardian angels that watched over us as we slept.

"Bella," Bastian murmured, his cold touch a shock on the warm skin of my neck. I jumped, causing him to chuckled. I studied the pale, burly man a moment. With his long, dark hair, he looked like the vampires of legend.

His golden eyes studied me with concern. "It is time to go, Bella. We need to be quick. I sense Hunters approaching hard and fast."

I nodded and he swung me up onto his back, racing away into the night. As he ran at superhuman speed, I reflected on my time with Bastian. He had been present at my birth and had taken it upon himself to be my personal bodyguard. When I asked him why he was so protective of me, his answer was that in his human life he had had a precious baby girl with ivory skin, dark brown hair and deep brown eyes. A group of Hunters had forced him to watch as they crushed her skull against a brick wall before feeding on him. Unfortunately for Bastian, he had been left for dead. He promised himself that if he survived the fire burning in every cell of his being that he would never feed on or take the life of a human being. And he had not. The moment they put me into my mother's waiting arms, he knew he had been meant to protect me—that every second of his existence had been leading him to me.

The school was not far from home, and the trip was quick. I felt Bastian slow to an abrupt stop. "Damn it! Too late!" he muttered under his breath. He crouched to let me off his back. "Bella, please stay very close to me. The Hunters have already been here. There is blood. Lots of it. I want to check for survivors."

I nodded, knowing what this meant. The blood was that of the people I loved—my family. I said a silent prayer to whatever gods would listen that my father and brother weren't among the slaughtered. My mother had been taken years ago to one of the breeding facilities. An attempted rescue had resulted in her death the deaths of several would-be heroes.

I wanted so badly to ask if any of the blood was Charlie's or Jasper's, but I knew it would only serve as a distraction for Bastian. Now was not the time for distractions.

We crept into the house as silently as possible. The smell of blood hit me upon entry. I had always been sensitive to the scent, but this was overwhelming.

Bastian didn't have to look at me to know I was freaking out. "I know Bella. Just stick with me, and hold your breath as much as possible." He lifted his face, scenting the air, "Damn it! I can't smell a fucking thing!" he muttered. "They have a cloaker. Peachy," he grumbled.

Suddenly, his head jerked up and he cocked his head to the side, hearing something my feeble human ears were incapable of hearing. He pressed me behind him and back against the wall, as we crept around the perimeter of the front hallway toward the living room. Bastian kept me pressed against the wall as he craned his neck around to look into the living room. He whistled lowly. "Hold your breath, Bella. It's not pretty in there."

I nodded against his shoulder. It wasn't as if I weren't familiar with death. In my sixteen years I had seen the results of hundreds of Hunter attacks. It wasn't as if it could be avoided. All the carnage in the world could not have prepared me for the massacre we found when we rounded the corner into the living room.

There were body parts everywhere. Intestines hung from the ceiling fan and blood spatter covered every available surface. As we entered, I could hear a labored wheezing. I followed Bastian to the source of the sound.

There was my father, lying on the floor behind the couch, covered in gore. He was dying.

"Charlie?!" I ran to him, immediately forgetting that we were in a crisis situation.

"Bella," he wheezed, smiling blindly.

"Charlie, where is Jazz?" I asked urgently.

"Taken."

I hung my head, trying to collect myself. "It wasn't fair that I should lose my brother and my father all in the same day. How much loss should one person be made to suffer in a lifetime?

Charlie's hand came up to clutch mine, trying to pull me down to him. I watched his blood-covered lips as they moved. "Run, Bella," he rasped. "They are still here."

Several things happened at once: There was a loud thump from upstairs, Bastian blurred to the foot of the stairs, and Charlie breathed his last breath. My father had died protecting our people. I wouldn't let his death be in vain. I shot up and headed for the door, risking a glance back at Bastian. I looked like he was outnumbered, but there were chunks of white stone flesh flying in all directions. None of the pained voices sounded like Bastian's, but I wasn't about to wait around to see the outcome. Bastian, Charlie and Jasper had told me that if something like this ever happened, that I was to run. And I did.

I made it to the door and yanked it open, escaping out into the brisk night air of Forks, Washington. I didn't look around me, because if they were after me, it wouldn't matter anyway. My focus was solely on the old red Chevy truck Charlie had bought me for my sixteenth birthday. I reached for my keys as I stumbled down the stairs. I hit the ground hard, rolling to my feet and running again. This was _not_ the time for my klutz gene to rear its ugly head.

"She's alive!" I heard Jasper gasp from somewhere behind me.

"I told you silly," came a musical female voice. A voice like wind chimes.

I turned—or, rather, I _tried _to turn quickly to see where my brother was. In doing so, I slipped on some damp flora (probably moss. I hate moss) and hit my head against the door of the Chevy.

"Oh, sweet giddy God." Yeah. Definitely Jasper. Only he could sound so calm at a time like this.

As my vision started to go spotty, I heard the musical female voice again. "I'll get her, Edward. Trust me. You want to stay away from her for a while. She smells delectable."

"What the fuck are you talking about?" I tried to say, but it came out more like, "Wah th fuh you tah bout?"

And then a pair of slim, cold arms were scooping me up and carrying me. The last thing I saw before my world went black was a sweet, pixie like face smiling down at me. "Don't worry, Bella!" The face chirped, golden eyes twinkling. "You're safe now. We're going to be the best of friends. You know, I saw it and I am never wrong." She kept talking, but none of it made sense, so I let myself sink into the blissful darkness.


End file.
